APUS supports Bullying Awareness Month

October 30, 2013

CHARLES TOWN - Fifth-grade students at Wright Denny Intermediate School learned about bullying and ways to stop it during a skit presentation by American Public University System staff Tuesday afternoon.

October is National Bullying Awareness Month, dedicated to educating the public about bullying behavior and prevention techniques.

The presentation at Wright Denny Intermediate School featured possible bullying situations a student might face during his or her day. Scenarios included being teased on the school bus, getting made fun of in the classroom and being excluded from "the cool kids' table" in the cafeteria.

Article Photos

Journal photo by Mary Stortstrom

Members of the APUS human resources department act out a scenario in which students are passing mean-spirited notes about a peer during class. The skit presentation was part of the APUS Stand Up Against Cyber Bullying Week, done in conjunction with National Bullying Awareness Month.

After each segment, students were asked what the victim of the bullying could do to make the bullies stop. By a show of hands, nearly all of the students at the assembly felt that speaking up against a bully was important. When asked how many of the students do take a stand against a bully, fewer than a third of the students raised their hands.

The APUS staff members acting out the scenarios gave tips to the students about what they can do to help stop bullying if they witness it or are a victim of it. They told the students not to give bullies the attention they want, and to ignore bullies if they can. When that doesn't work, students were advised to tell a teacher, counselor, parent or other trusted adult about the bullying they face.

During the presentation, Matt See, social media manager for APUS, reminded students that bullying doesn't only take place at school. They or their peers may be experiencing bullying over social media platforms like Facebook, or even by text message.

"A lot of the time, schools will teach about bullying in the classroom, like the things that we were doing, but they don't think about the fact that kids are getting bullied on Facebook or via text messages," See said. "(Students) don't think it's as real because they think it's anonymous."

The American Public University System helped raise awareness of cyber bullying last week with a Stand Up Against Cyber Bullying campaign. Information about cyber bullying and how to recognize and report it was made available to APUS students and staff online, via Facebook posts, Tweets and blogs.

The week ended with a show of solidarity Friday, when APUS asked students, staff and the community to stand up wherever they were at 11 a.m. to show they are taking a stand against cyber bullying.

"Our students really took a big part in it," See said. "They were posting pictures (online) on Friday at 11 saying, 'Here I am, standing up,' and a lot of our staff did the same thing. It was a way for us to say that we recognize cyber bullying is a problem and we're standing up against it."